The integration of frailty into clinical practice: preliminary results from the Gérontopôle

Despite growing importance placed on preventing disability, implementation of frailty parameters in the clinical setting is still limited. At this time, there is significant difficulty in preventively acting against disability in part because 1) there is a need to design different geriatric approaches to older patients, and 2) frailty is still not widely recognized as a valid clinical condition. This article summarizes the main characteristics of the Platform for Evaluation of Frailty and Prevention of Disability (Toulouse, France), a tool that specifically aims at supporting the comprehensive and multidisciplinary assessment of frail older persons.

In this paper, the authors discuss several aspects of frailty, including identification of the frail elderly person, definition and causes of frailty, and potential interventions. A total of 160 patients participated in an evaluation using this novel platform, which proposed preventive and therapeutic interventions, supported families and caregivers, and interacted with general practitioners in order to optimize the management of the frail older patient. For this first time, this platform clinically evaluated and intervened on frailty at the population level, and may serve as a first step toward wider identification of early signs of age- and frailty-related disability.